Sonic the Hedgehog
Sonic the Hedgehog is a supersonic hedgehog that can move faster than the speed of sound, with lightning reflexes to match (hence the name Sonic) and loves adventure. He acknowledges the fact that the Earth is just as cool and blue as he is. He is 15 years old, stands at 100 centimeters (3 ft 3 in), weighs 35 kilograms (77 lbs) and was born on Christmas Island. Artist Naoto Ōshima, designer Hirokazu Yasuhara and programmer Yuji Naka are generally credited with the creation of the character, a blue-furred, blue and-peach-skinned, green-eyed, anthropomorphic African pygmy hedgehog, who has the ability to move faster than the speed of sound and possesses the ability curl up into a ball, primarily to attack enemies. This is a major part of the gameplay of the series. Sonic seems to have a holy or avatar-like position (despite, on most occasions, being unaware about his involvement in the future of the world he's saving), as many of his adventures in the series coincide with the fulfillment of ancient prophecies, specifically his involvement in Echidna legends (such as: the mural on Angel Island that depicts Super Sonic fighting Eggman/Ivo Robotnik for the Master Emerald). http:// In April 1990, Sega requested a game capable of selling over one million copies, a character who could compete against Nintendo's Super Mario, and a character to replace Alex Kidd as the company's mascot. Several character designs were submitted by its AM8 research & development department, including an armadillo (who was later developed into Mighty the Armadillo), a dog, an over-sized Theodore Roosevelt in pajamas (which would later be the basis of Doctor Eggman's design), and a rabbit (intended to use its extendable ears to collect objects; these aspects were later incorporated into Ristar). Eventually, a hedgehog, initially codenamed "Mr. Needlemouse", was chosen as the new mascot. A group of fifteen started working on Sonic the Hedgehog and renamed themselves Sonic Team. The game's soundtrack was composed by Masato Nakamura of the band Dreams Come True. Sega sponsored the group's "Wonder 3" tour, painting Sonic on the tour bus, distributing pamphlets advertising the game, and having footage of the game broadcast above stage prior to its release. Sonic's precise age, weight, height and other physical characteristics vary depending on the continuity in which he appears and the style in which he is drawn. In the video games, Sonic's original design by Naoto Ōshima was quite short and childlike (perhaps because he was 10 years old at the time of debut), with short spiky hair, a round body, one spike in his back, and no visible irises. Artwork featuring this design and drawn by Akira Watanabe was displayed on the package artwork for Sonic the Hedgehog (1991), and most subsequent Sonic video games featured similar designs. Beginning with Sonic Adventure in 1998, Sonic was redesigned by Yuji Uekawa as a 15-year-old, taller character with longer legs and a less spherical body, longer and more drooping spiky hair, two spikes in his back, and emerald-green-colored eyes. Further subtle changes to the character's design have been made in subsequent games. Spin-off media such as comics and cartoons have featured variations on all these video game designs, with restrictions set by the standardized model sheets. His cobalt blue pigmentation came from Sega's logo, which is the same color. http:// http:// http:// Sonic started his battle against his nemesis Dr. Ivo Robotnik in the 1991 platform game Sonic the Hedgehog for the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. Robotnik wanted to take over the world but Sonic travelled through South Island freeing the animal residents who were transformed in huge numbers into Robotnik's Badnik slaves and prevented him from getting the Chaos Emeralds. http:// In the 1992 sequel Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for the Sega Mega Drive, Sonic first performed his signature "Spin Dash" move. The game takes place some time after he met Miles "Tails" Prower, who quickly became Sonic's sidekick and idolizes him, trying to be just like him. Robotnik is at his old scheme again, turning the animal residents of West Side Island into his Badnik army while creating his ultimate weapon, the Death Egg. The Doctor is also after the Chaos Emeralds again so that they help him conquer the world. When Sonic got all seven of the Chaos Emeralds he discovered the powers of them can turn him into Super Sonic. Tails was at his side in most of the adventure, but was left behind when Sonic's plane, the Tornado - piloted by Tails at the time -, was shot down at the beginning of the Wing Fortress Zone, leaving Sonic by himself to fight Robotnik's secret weapon, Silver Sonic, on the Death Egg spaceship, followed by a gigantic robot in the image of the scientist himself. After Robotnik was defeated once again, Sonic escaped the exploding Death Egg and was caught by Tails in the repaired Tornado. http:// In the arcade game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, Sonic was captured by Dr. Robotnik, along with Mighty the Armadillo and Ray the Flying Squirrel. Sonic teamed up with the other two and they traveled to escape Eggman Island, which was covered with traps. In the end, Robotnik self-destructed the island, but Sonic, Ray and Mighty escaped just in time. However, the doctor escaped Sonic once more. http:// Sonic was solo once again for Sonic CD (1993), in which he went to Little Planet while it was at near Sonic's homeworld in order to explore it. However, his goals changed once he saw his arch-nemesis having taken over the entire planet, leaving Sonic to liberate it of the scientist's control. Shortly after his arrival, Sonic met a female hedgehog named Amy Rose, who was on the planet in hopes of meeting him. However, only moments after she met him, she was captured by Metal Sonic, Sonic's second, robotic doppelgänger. Using his unrivalled speed, Sonic managed to travel through time and ensure a good future for the Little Planet. Near the end of his adventure, Sonic encountered Metal Sonic and the doctor once again, having a race with the robot on the Stardust Speedway. In the ensuing victory of Sonic's, the Eggman managed to accidently destroy his own creation. Sonic went on to defeat the doctor in a final battle in the Metallic Madness, after which Sonic rescued Amy while the doctor's bases began exploding and were literally crumbling away. The Little Planet went on show Sonic's face in a shower of light before seemingly warping away from Earth, while leaving many new flowers grow around the area it floated above. Eggman, on the other hand, seemingly managed to sneak a Time Stone off the Little Planet, but Sonic spotted him and managed to put an end to his current schemes by using his Spin Dash to shoot a rock in the direction of his flying machine, causing it to explode. ::::::It is not known what happened with the Time Stone in question. After that, Sonic presumably went on his adventuring ways around the world. http:// In Sonic Chaos (also known as "Sonic & Tails" in Japan) for the Game Gear and Master System, Sonic and Tails were facing the threat of Dr. Robotnik sinking South Island by improperly using the Chaos Emeralds. Sonic and Tails collected the Emeralds before the doctor could, including the red one he already had in his posession and liberated the island of his control once more. http:// In the spin-off Sonic Spinball, Sonic went to Mt. Mobius, which was taken over by Dr. Robotnik and made into his "Veg-o-Fortress". However, Sonic was knocked off of Tails' airplane on the way, causing him to travel through Mt. Mobius in a pinball styled way from bottom to top. On his adventure to the top, he collected Sixteen Chaos Emeralds and rescued Tails, along with characters from the Saturday Morning TV Series: Sally Acorn, Bunnie Rabbot and Rotor Walrus. In the end, Sonic defeated the doctor and his Veg-o-Fortress was destroyed while the speedy hedgehog made his escape together with Tails and his airplane. http:// In Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and its expansion Sonic & Knuckles, both released in 1994, Sonic and Tails landed on Angel Island. Shortly after their arrival, Sonic, at that moment in his super form, was ambushed by Knuckles the Echidna, somehow forcing the hedgehog out of his form. After the hero lost the Chaos Emeralds, Knuckles was quick to snitch and hide them. Sonic and Tails were then forced to search the island for the Emeralds, all the while having to liberate it from the control of Dr. Robotnik's robots once more, who crashlanded with his Death Egg on the Island some time prior to the game.After a long struggle, which included preventing the first relaunch of the Death Egg in the doctor's Launch Base, the heroic duo reached the Hidden Palace, where Sonic and Knuckles fought against each other for the first of many times to come. After his defeat at the hands of Sonic, the red Echidna went to check on the status of the Master Emerald, which was kept here at the time. Too late, Knuckles realized he was being tricked by the mad scientist who told him that Sonic was the one after the Master Emerald, not Robotnik. After the doctor made his escape, Master Emerald in tow, Knuckles guided Sonic and Tails to a hidden Teleporter to the Sky Sanctuary, from which the trio could witness the successful launch of the Death Egg. However, the two had to leave Knuckles there as he was too exhausted from the previous two struggles. On their way through the Sanctuary, Sonic and Tails encountered two peculiar robots of the Eggman's: The Egg Robo, a robot in the image of Dr. Robotnik himself, and Mecha Sonic, the third robotic doppelgänger of Sonic, which, during the first two encounteres with the heroes, copied the behavior of the doctor as witnessed on two previous occasions. On their third encounter, Mecha Sonic exhibited a fighting style loosely imitating many of Sonic's abilities in the process. However, the original still managed to defeat the copy. The resulting explosion managed to make a tall pillar nearby crumble, but Sonic and Tails managed to get on the Death Egg by running along the pillar as it was crumbling to pieces just in time. There, the heroic duo encountered Dr. Robotnik for the final showdown. He attacked them with a gigantic robot, loosely in his own image, powered by the Master Emerald. Sonic and Tails managed to defeat the contraption, but the doctor still had a trick up his sleeve, as he managed to steal the Master Emerald again using a battleship smaller than the Death Egg. In order to pursuit him, Sonic transformed once again in his Super Form (Hyper Form if the player managed to collect all Super Emeralds), chasing the evil genius' ship across an orbit around the planet. After a long battle, Sonic emerged victorious, descending to Earth with the Master Emerald. In mid-flight, he powered down to his regular form, however, but was rescued by Tails, who somehow managed to escape the Death Egg, as well and was piloting the Tornado. The two then brought the Emerald back to where it belonged, Angel Island, before leaving Knuckles be for the time being. Some time after this, Sonic, piloting the Tornado personally, rescued Knuckles, after the latter's fight against the recently-reactivated Mecha Sonic, from falling into the ocean. The two brought the Master Emerald back to Angel Island and the Hedgehog and Echidna parted ways once more. http:// In Sonic Triple Trouble (also known as "Sonic & Tails 2" in Japan), Sonic and Tails had to gather the Chaos Emeralds once more, before Dr. Robotnik could get his hands on them. However, this time, things got more difficult for the heroic duo when the doctor managed to trick Knuckles the Echidna into helping him once more. Furthermore, a dangerous treasure hunter by the name of Fang the Sniper also set his eyes on the mysterious gems, bend on stealing them for his own personal gain. The heroes managed to race and battle their way through the world, getting the Emeralds before any of the others and confronted Fang in the mad scientist's base. However, the treasure hunter was scared away when the evil genius arrived with his newest contraption. In the end, the machine was destroyed by the heroes, who then found Knuckles imprisoned by the doctor. They freed him and Sonic and Knuckles made up on good terms once more. http:// In the 1995 game Sonic Labyrinth, Dr. Robotnik somehow replaced Sonic's shoes while the hero was sleeping. After Sonic awoke, he realized that his shoes were not the same, for they were considerably heavier, disabling him from jumping or running at higher speeds. Around this time, the doctor also constructed some sort of labyrinth on the South Island as his new base. Despite his new pair of slow-down shoes, Sonic made his way through the labyrinth, in the end defeating the mad scientist and regaining the Chaos Emeralds as well as his regular shoes. http:// In Sonic the Fighters (also known as Sonic Championship), Doctor Robotnik went on to build a second Death Egg, known simply as the Death Egg 2 and again announced plans for world conquest. Luckily, Tails' recently built a rocket that could fly it's pilot directly to the new Death Egg, however, it was only a one-seater and it needed Chaos Emeralds to take off. In order to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic had to fight many friends and foes, old and new: Knuckles, Amy, Bark the Polar Bear, future Team Chaotix member Espio the Chameleon, his friend Tails, Bean the Dynamite and the treasure hunter previously encountered known as Fang. Before Sonic could be off to launch the rocket, however, the doctor showed up once again in a peculiarily familiar-looking spaceship. An unusual ray hit Sonic that knocked him out for a few seconds. When he came back to his senses, the doctor was gone and before him stood a near-identical copy of himself, the only difference being that the copy was completely monochrome. The hedgehogs fought, but in the end, the original hedgehog was victorious over his copy. Afterwards, Sonic headed back to Tails' workshop to launch the rocket, heading straight for the new Death Egg. Upon his arrival, he was "welcomed" by a new Metal Sonic. The two fought a tough battle, but Sonic could turn the tide in the middle of the fight by using the Emeralds' power to transform into Super Sonic once more, defeating his mechanical doppelgänger again. He was then facing the mad scientist himself, who built some sort of battle suit for himself in order to face Sonic. At the same time, it appeared that the station's self-destruct sequence had been initiated, leaving the two combattants under time-pressure. However, since Sonic was still in his super form, the mad scientist proved no match for him. After having defeated the the Eggman, Super Sonic left the station in Tails' rocket, moments before it self-destructed. http:// On yet another adventure, Sonic visited Flickies' Island, the epinomous island that is the main point of action in Sonic 3D Blast: Flickies' Island (also known as simply Sonic 3D and Sonic 3D Blast). Here, he discovered that Doctor Robotnik was at his evil schemes once more, establishing a base and trapping the helpless Flickies so they power his robots. Sonic rescued all the Flickies on the island and, with the help of Tails and Knuckles, managed to gather all of the Chaos Emeralds before the doctor could do so himself. With support from the rescued Flickies, Sonic managed to get to the secret lair of the mad scientist, where Sonic confronted him in a final, lengthy battle. Ultimately, Sonic emerged victorious and the island was liberated from the evil genius' control. http:// In the prelude to the Sega Saturn and Windows game Sonic R, Sonic and Tails were strolling around a city when they caught news about a racing competition. Despite Tails' urging, Sonic didn't seem to be initially interested in a race, however, once he glimpsed at the list of registered participants, he saw Dr. Robotnik's name on the list as well, causing a change of mind for him. In the competition, Sonic had to face his friend's Tails, Knuckles and Amy, as well as the scientist that was the reason for him joining in the first place. The evil genius also brought with him robots to participate, both old and new: Metal Sonic and Egg Robo, as well as Metal Knuckles and the ominous Tails Doll. In the end, however, Sonic outraced them all and the Eggman did not get his hands on the Chaos Emeralds, which were scattered around the race tracks. http:// In Sonic's first true 3D Adventure Sonic Adventure (1998) Sonic was put up against an ancient monster named Chaos who was under control of Dr. Robotnik (Who officially receives the name Dr. Eggman in the English version, intended as an insult, but he later takes it as his own). Sonic and Tails teamed up once again to get the Chaos Emeralds to prevent Chaos from reaching his final form and destroying Station Square. Although they were very unfortunate at times losing the emeralds. Sonic finished Chaos who had six of the emeralds on the Egg Carrier. Thinking it was over Chaos got a hold of all seven emeralds when they were back on Angel Island and destroyed Station Square. Sonic with the help of his friends got the used up emeralds and harnessing their positive energy, Sonic defeated Chaos as Super Sonic turning Chaos into a benevolent creature once again. http:// Sonic Adventure 2 (2001) which celebrated the 10th anniversary of the series, introduced a new rival, Shadow the Hedgehog, whom people were confused and thought was Sonic. Shadow was released by Dr. Eggman to help in his plans of world domination. Being wanted by G.U.N. Sonic was captured and locked on Prison Island. Sonic was later rescued by Tails and Amy where they escaped the island and began finding a way to Eggman's Base to get them to the Space Colony ARK. Sonic had to rescue Tails and Amy from Eggman but was fired off into the atmosphere and was saved by a Chaos Control. Sonic found himself back onto the ARK on the outside having to save everyone by deactivating the planet-destroying Eclipse Cannon. Sonic was then confronted by Shadow where they had a final battle. When Sonic won the battle everyone realized that the Biolizard, who is the prototype ultimate life form, was going to destroy the Earth. Everyone on both sides teamed up and made they way to the cannon's core, where Sonic and Shadow both teamed up and used the power of the Chaos Emeralds to become Super Sonic and Super Shadow and defeat the Biolizard. They used a powerful Chaos Control that returned the ARK to a stable orbit. Shadow ran out of energy, fell into the atmosphere and was presumed dead, while Sonic survived as the rest of the gang rejoiced in victory. http:// After the 1999 game Sonic Pocket Adventure the Sonic returned to the Handheld games with Sonic Advance (2002) where Sonic, Tails, Knuckles and Amy go back to their adventures fighting Dr. Eggman in 2D sidescrolling levels. When Sonic Advance 2 (2003) came out Sonic met Cream the Rabbit, rescued Tails and confronted Knuckles who was tricked again and joined them on their adventure fighting Dr. Eggman. A third 3D action game, Sonic Heroes (2003), featured four different teams made up by three characters in each, and marked the official return of supporting characters Team Chaotix as the teams battled Eggman and the return of the evil Metal Sonic who wanted to achieve world domination himself. After heavily destroying the Egg Fleet, the heroes encounter Metal Sonic. Super Sonic, Tails and Knuckles defeated Metal Sonic's ultimate form, Metal Overlord leaving him in the hands of E-123 Omega. The sequel to this was Shadow the Hedgehog (2005), in which Sonic worked with the Sonic Heroes and G.U.N forces to repel the Black Arms invasion of Earth. He was helpless however in the final showdown, but Shadow as Super Shadow managed to not only defeat and kill Black Doom in his devil form, but using Chaos Control, teleported the Black Comet away and blew it to pieces with the fully charged Eclipse Cannon saving the world once again. http:// Sonic Rush was the first Nintendo DS Sonic Game where Sonic must save the World from not only Doctor Eggman but even from a new villian Eggman Nega as well, it also introduced the New Female Character Blaze the Cat. Sonic Rush also had a sequal called Sonic Rush Adventure where Sonic and Tails ends up in Blaze's Dimension and they help Blaze defeat Captian whiskers and his band of Robot Pirates who has stolen the Sol Emeralds and the Jeweled Scepter. Sonic the Hedgehog (2006 game), which celebrated the 15th anniversary of the series, featured the first appearance of Blaze the Cat in a home console and a new foe called Silver the Hedgehog who possesses powerful psychic abilities. Sonic Rivals was the first Sonic game for the PSP (Playstation Portable). Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Silver battle each other as they go after Doctor Eggman (actually Eggman Nega in disguise). Sonic Rivals also had a sequal called Sonic Rivals 2. http:// In 2007, Sonic and the Secret Rings released where Sonic along with his genie friend Shahra battled to protect the Arabian Nights. There is also a sequel of Sonic & the Secret Rings known as Sonic & the Black Knight. By the end of the story, it's revealed that Sonic was the true King Arthur of the world.http:// Sonic battles Eggman again in the game Sonic Unleashed, where Eggman shatters the planet and Sonic must recharge the Chaos Emeralds to put it back together. Things are made more difficult by the fact that Sonic now transforms into a Werehog/Werewolf at night. Sonic battles another ancient evil, Dark Gaia, thousands of years old and teams with it's counterpart, Light Gaia in order to recover the latter's memories forming a strong relationship. After Sonic defeats Eggman. Dark Gaia prepares to plunge the Earth into darkness but is stopped but Light Gaia's Gaia Colossus and the power of Super Sonic in the core of the planet. Super Sonic was given a tough fight and falls unconscious in his normal form after killing the beast. He is sent back to the surface as Light Gaia lays dormant again. http:// Sonic has also been featured in games of many genres other than 2D and 3D platform games. The first of these was a pinball game, Sonic Spinball (1993), which expanded upon the pinball sequences in the first two platform games. Sonic has also appeared in "2.5D" isometric platformers (Sonic Labyrinth, Sonic Battle and Sonic 3D Blast), racing games (Sonic Drift, Sonic R, Sonic Riders, and ''Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity.) and fighting games (Sonic the Fighters'' ,Sonic Battle, and Super Smash Bros. Brawl ). He also, for the first time, teamed up with his video game rival, Mario, in, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games. http:// Video games such as Dr. Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine, Tails Adventure, Knuckles Chaotix and Shadow the Hedgehog starred supporting characters of the Sonic series; in some of them Sonic had a cameo role. The hedgehog has also made cameo appearances in numerous other Sega games such as Daytona USA and. http:// There have been several animated television series featuring Sonic. http:// Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog was the first and featured Sonic, voiced by Jaleel white, and Robotnik, voiced by Long John Baldry. It had a very comical take on Sonic and Tails' adventures and battles with Robotnik. http:// Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM), originally broadcast on Saturdays on ABC, was broadcast concurrently with the syndicated Adventures series in the United States. Sonic was voiced by Jaleel White, and Robotnik was voiced by Jim Cummings. The Archie Comics continuity was based heavily on this series; it was far more dark and brooding than Adventures showing Robotnik as a fearsome dictator controlling Mobius and Sonic and his Freedom Fighter friends battle to take back their planet. http:// Sonic Underground, a show in the US, United Kingdom and France, ignored the continuity of the previous series and games and instead introduced two siblings and Sonic's mother, named Sonia, Manic and Queen Aleena respectively. White returned to voice Sonic, with Samuel Vincent providing his singing voice, while Robotnik was voiced by Gary Chalk It showed Sonic and his siblings as royalty but they have to battle to take back their thrones from the evil dictator.. http:// Additionally, there was a Sonic the Hedgehog OVA''Anime OVA in Japan which featured Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, Eggman and Metal Sonic. Sonic was voiced by Masami Kikuchi in Japan, and Martin Burke in the United States, where the OVA was marketed as ''Sonic the Hedgehog: The Movie.http:// The latest animated Sonic television series, Sonic X, is an anime in which a massive Chaos Control blast results in Sonic and his friends being transported from his world to the human world (however Season 3 mainly takes place in Sonic's own world). Like the other television series, it has an original storyline not present in any of the games, although it can be viewed as an elaboration upon the Sonic Adventure games' storylines. Music from the games is used during select key moments in the series, and several animation sequences strongly resemble cutscenes from the console titles. In addition, the characters' designs are based upon the more recent Sonic games' character designs. Sonic is voiced by Jun'ichi Kanemaru in the Japanese version, and by Jason Griffith in the English version. http:// Sonic's first comic appearance was in a promotional comic printed in Disney Adventures magazine, which established an origin for Sonic involving the transformation of kindly scientist Doctor Ovi Kintobor into the evil Dr. Ivo Robotnik. Numerous British publications, including "Sega handbook" Stay Sonic (1993), four novels published by Virgin Books (1993–1994) and the comic book Sonic the Comic (1993–2002) used this premise as their basis. The American comics published by Archie Comics, Sonic the Hedgehog (1993—present), Sonic X (comics) (2005—2009) and Sonic Universe (2009-present) are based on the settings established by earlier animated TV series, the ABC Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) cartoon and the Sonic X anime respectively. In Japan, Sonic manga have been published, and there is currently another one being published based on Sonic Unleashed featuring Chip (Chippu). There is also released comics,Sonic The Hedgehog Archives,which presents the rare comics with a premium format. http:// Sonic has proven to be an extremely popular character. After having been around only 2 years, he had already surpassed Nintendo's Mario in popularity according to a June 1993 Q-Survey in Gameplayers magazine. As a result of this popularity, he has been referred to in various parts of culture. One of a class of genes involved in fruit fly embryonic development, called hedgehog genes, has been named "sonic hedgehog" after the character. Other references are present in television programs. In the show Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi, in the episode "Camp Capers", Ami is captured by Bigfoot. Yumi pretends she is in a video game, and she runs through a 16-bit forest area, jumps on a crab (thus killing it) then goes at sound-barrier-breaking speeds and runs over a checkered loop, obviously a reference to Sonic the Hedgehog (16-bit)'s Green Hill Zone. An episode of Mega XLR spoofed Sonic with a parade balloon called Auggie the Adorable Aardvark (that also spoofs Mickey Mouse by wearing the same clothes), that was mutated and could do Sonic attacks such as the Spin Dash. In the show "15/Love", in Adena and Tannis' dorm room, there is a poster with the cover of the original Sonic the Hedgehog game in it. Sonic also made a cameo appearance in the episode of The Simpsons entitled "Marge Be Not Proud", voiced by Dan Castellaneta. He appears along with Mario, Luigi, Donkey Kong, and fictional pro golfer Lee Carvallo, trying to convince Bart Simpson to steal a video game. As reported by famous UK fansite The Sonic Stadium, there is also a reference to the Sonic The Hedgehog universe in another Simpsons episode "Lisa gets an A", when she was playing a video game with a character who has to get the seven crystal babies, a reference to the seven chaos emeralds. he reappears in a 1990s themed episode on a billboard proposing to Amy saying "Sonic the Hedgehog says: Wait 'til marriage." On Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Space Ghost is seen playing Sonic 3 & Knuckles on the guest monitor. Sonic has also made appearances in films. In the 1996 movie Jingle All The Way, in the scene where Jamie arrives at the parade, Sonic can be seen as a character marching in the parade. In the movie Hitch, on the side of an ice cream truck, there is a picture of a Sonic popsicle . Sonic has also appeared in Wayne's World. Sonic has also made appearances as a character in parades. In 1996, Sonic was the first video game character to be seen in a Rose Parade. Sonic was also in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade; the only other video game character to ever be in the parade was Pikachu. Sonic has been a mascot for various sports teams as well. Between 1993 and 1997, Sega sponsored the JEF United Ichihara Chiba football (soccer) team. During this period, Sonic appeared on the team's uniform. During the 1993 Formula One championship, Sega sponsored WilliamsF1, which won the season. Sonic was featured in the cars, helmets, and rival Team McLaren used to paint a squashed hedgehog after winning races over Williams. The 1993 European Grand Prix featured a Sonic balloon and Sonic billboards. The trophy was a statue of the hedgehog. Lately, things have seemed to patched up with Nintendo, as Sonic appears as a 3rd Party playable character in Super Smash Bros. Brawl Panic the Hedgehog, a character from the Moron Comics parody series of Sonic the Hedgehog and The Amazing Spider-Man, Panic the Hedgehog and The Annoying Spitter-Man, is a parody of Sonic. Sonic appears in a cameo in the game Crusader of Centy where he's sunbathing at a beach. If the player tries to talk to him he dispenses the odd bit of dialogue: "Tsk, tsk! I'm a gallant hedgehog! Don't mess or you'll get burned!" Sonic made a cameo in Journey in the end of the night where he can be seen on a billboard where it says Sonic Rules. A parody of Sonic was featured in The Simpsons Game, where he is heard saying such lines as: "I forgot why I hate Eggman so much" and "That shadow version of me? Nicest guy in the world, completely misunderstood." He also appears in one of the cutscenes, as well as playing a small part in one section of the game. Sonic appears to be a bird as opposed to a hedgehog and has hair similar to Manic's as instead of spines. Sonic also appeared in the TV show "Robot Chicken" in an episode called "Shoes" where Sonic is rolling through Green Hill Zone (Act 6, ironically) and is killed by rolling into into a spike strip set up by two police officers. In the TV show "Malcolm in the Middle", Malcolm and Stevie are seen playing Sonic R once. http:// The earliest voice of Sonic was Takeshi Kusao in the game SegaSonic the Hedgehog, a June 1993 arcade release starring Sonic the Hedgehog, Mighty the Armadillo, and Ray the Flying Squirrel. In Sonic CD, Sonic actually had a few voice clips, in which he would say I'm outta here! if the player stood still for 3 minutes, and yeah! if the player obtained a 1-up. In September 1993, DiC Entertainment cast Jaleel White, more popularly known as portraying the character of Steve Urkel, as Sonic in their simultaneously released shows Sonic the Hedgehog (SatAM) and Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog. White would later be cast as Sonic for DiC's 1999 show Sonic Underground. In 1996, when the Sonic the Hedgehog OAV was produced in Japan, Sonic was voiced by Masami Kikuchi. The 1999 English-language dub featured Martin Burke in Sonic's role.